Karen Marder is the Sally Kerlin Professor of Neurology (in the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center, in the Taub Institute on Alzheimers Disease and the Aging Brain, and in Psychiatry) at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital. She is also Chief of the Division of Aging and Dementia in the Department of Neurology.

Biographical Sketch

Dr. Karen Marder received her undergraduate degree from Cornell University and her medical degree from Weil Cornell Medical College. She completed her residency training in Neurology at the Neurological Institute and fellowship training in Behavioral Neurology with Dr. Richard Mayeux and Neuroepidemiology training with Dr. W. Allan Hauser at Columbia. She joined the faculty as an assistant professor of Neurology in 1989. She has been the Director of the Huntington's Disease Society of America Center of Excellence since 1991. In September 2001, she was appointed Chief of the division of Aging and Dementia in the Department of Neurology, and was appointed Professor in 2002. In May 2006 she was elected to a 6 year term as Co-Chair of the Parkinson Study group, a consortium of North American investigators at 85 sites who participate in collaborative Parkinson's Disease (PD) research. In October 2006 she was appointed the director of the Participant Clinical Interactions Resource at Columbia, one of 12 NIH funded Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA).

Research Interests

My research interests span a range of neurodegenerative diseases including Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, HIV dementia, and Alzheimer's disease. I am the principal investigator for an NIH-funded study of the epidemiology and genetics of early-onset Parkinson's disease. A major area of interest has been the risk factors and impact of dementia on the course of Parkinson's Disease. The multidisciplinary; Huntington's Disease Center; is a site for many clinical trials and clinical research initiatives (www.hdny.org). Lastly, I have been studying the clinical and immunological profiles associated with the development of cognitive impairment in the setting of HIV infection and I have been the site investigator on numerous Phase II and Phase III trials for HIV dementia.